Hellenistic and Chinese Medicine

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Notes from an on-going investigation of Celsus (around 40 AD, the leading Latin

medical writer and perhaps the best source for Alexandrian/Hellenistic

medicine):

 

 

1. His word for " digestion " is concoctio or the verb concoquere, whose other

meanings are " to boil together " i.e. " cook " , and " to ripen or mature " . Condita

omnia duabus causis inutilia sunt, quoniam et plus propter dulcedinem adsumitur,

et quod modo par est, tamen aegius concoquitur. Secunda mensa bono stomacho

nihil nocet, in inbecillo coacescit. Si quis itaque hoc parum valet, palmulas

pomaque et simila melius primo cibo adsumit. All preserved fruits are useless

for two reasons, since more tends to be eaten because of the sweetness, and

because even a moderate amount still is digested with difficulty. Dessert does

no harm to a good stomach, in a weak one turns acidic (coacescit). Someone,

therefore, if he has too little strength in this respect, had better take dates,

apples and similar items as the first course. (Book I. 2. 9)

 

The word concoctio in this passagae shows an intuitive understanding of spleen

yang, understanding of how the sweet flavor attracts and challenges digestion,

the vital difference between sufficient and insufficient digestive abilities,

intuitive understanding of the ripening and rotting of the Earth Official, and

how the sequence of foods taken can affect the digestive process.

 

2. Uses deficiens to mean deficiency and superans to mean excess. When he uses

repletio to mean excess he modifies it with an adjective like nimis to mean too

much. neque esse dubium quin alia curatione opus sit, si ex quattuor principiis

vel superans aliquod vel deficiens adversam valetudinem creat, ut quidam ex

sapientiae professoribus dixerunt, nor is there doubt but that some treatment

is needed if some excess or deficiency of the four elements creates adverse

health, as some of the professors of philosophy have said (Proemium 14).

 

 

or: Accedit ad haec, quod ne ipse quidem Erasistratus, qui transfuso in

arterias sanguine febrem fieri dicit idque nimis repleto corpore incidere,

repperit, cur ex duobus aeque repletis alter in morbum incideret, alter omni

periculo vacaret; quod cotidie dieri apparet. In addition to these things it

happens that not even Erasistratus himself, who says that fever occurs from

blood poured over into the arteries and that this happens in an over (nimis)

replete body, could discover why from two equally replete patients one fell into

sickness, the other was free of all danger (Proemium 60).

 

 

Note the concept of balance of " elements " or " principia " i.e. " beginnings " .

With this intuitive use of excess and deficiency among the four elements,

doctors of this tradition would have had quick intuitive grasp of a patient's

constitutional type and degree of imbalance. It needs to be examined how the

lack of metal and wood as elements affected their understanding of respiratory

and nervous conditions; but the transition from Ancient Western Medicine to TCM

would be far less perplexing than a transition from the Periodic Table.

 

Carl Ploss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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